Elevating Green, Lowering CostsIn the global movement toward greening the supply chain, much of the focus in warehousing has been on actual building systems. However, lift trucks use substantial energy and provide significant opportunities for savings. Find out how a review of consumption cost projections can help lead to energy-saving innovations and lower costs.

The Tales Lift Trucks TellAn enterprise fleet management solution is giving lift truck owners tangible benefits in time savings, lower maintenance and operating costs, fewer vehicle impacts and more pallets moved per hour. A large operation may be faced with collecting and analyzing data from tens to hundreds of trucks of various makes across a few or many facilities. With a fleet and warehouse optimization system, managers can monitor and report on vehicle and operator data – and even control performance parameters – from a computer or mobile device.

Protecting the Power SourceThe iBATTERY™ battery management system gives lift truck owners unprecedented power to monitor real-time battery condition and make decisions that optimize battery life and performance. Reduce your cost of ownership and ensure your batteries and forklifts are operating at peak efficiency with this unique battery management system. Access real-time battery data from your computer or mobile device through the unique, single view web portal – the iWAREHOUSE GATEWAY.

During this Webcast you'll learn how the latest generation of robotics systems, which incorporate vision, mobility, autonomous navigation, complex manipulation and motion control, can be used in a wide variety of appliations such as picking, placing, order fulfillment, palletizing, depalletizing, loading, unloading and many other areas.

High technology, automatic data collection, sensors, and software are probably not the first words you associate with lift trucks. However, today’s lift trucks are highly sophisticated pieces of machinery.

“Over the last 10 or 20 years, the technology within the lift truck has evolved immensely,” says Mike McKean, sales and marketing manager for Toyota Material Handling USA. “The brains of the lift truck have grown. The dashboards display so much more information than in the past.”

That technology is moving beyond the dash. Thanks to sensors, microprocessors, and CAN bus technology, today’s lift trucks have the capability to collect and communicate lift truck data in real time.

In turn, fleet management software systems can use that data to manage the maintenance of the truck or monitor how a driver is operating the vehicle. It can perform that management for an individual truck or driver, a fleet of trucks, or team of drivers—in one location or across multiple locations. It’s possible to feed that information to other management software systems, such as labor management (LMS), warehouse management (WMS), or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, to drive process improvements.

“We’re not there yet, but we are moving toward a smart truck platform,” says Phil Van Wormer, executive vice president of sales, marketing, and business development for Total Trax, a third-party provider of fleet management software for lift trucks.

Tracking maintenance
The earliest iterations of fleet management software were used to keep track of maintenance. Indeed, that is still the most common use of the technology, aiding equipment manufacturers to improve their products as much as end users.

“Using fleet management software, we know what repairs were made on what trucks and at what intervals of usage,” says Joe LaFergola, marketing manager of business and information solutions for Raymond. “If we see a trend developing around the failure of parts, we can do a root cause analysis on the affected parts and implement programs to reduce the cost there.”

For end users, maintenance systems are used to schedule planned maintenance events and to track unplanned and exception repairs. Those repairs can also be compared against the hours of use to see if a truck is getting more or less hours between repairs than is expected or if the truck is getting more maintenance than is necessary for the hours of operation. Together, they provide a snapshot of how the truck is performing and how it is being maintained.

Taken to the next step, the systems can be used to automate the components of a maintenance transaction. With intelligent dispatching, for instance, either the system itself or the end user can provide information that allows some problems to be solved without ever sending a technician. In the alternative, the system may ensure that a technician has the right tools and parts to address an issue on the first call.

“This allows us to obtain as much information as possible before a service call even gets to the dealer,” says Pat DeSutter, who is with Yale’s fleet management program. “We can then make sure we’re dispatching a technician based on the skill required and the availability of parts.”

About the Author

Bob TrebilcockEditor at Large

Bob Trebilcock, executive editor, has covered materials handling, technology and supply chain topics for Modern Materials Handling since 1984. A graduate of Bowling Green State University, Trebilcock lives in Keene, NH. He can be reached at 603-357-0484 and .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Subscribe to Modern Materials Handling magazine

Subscribe today. It's FREE!

Find out what the world's most innovative companies are doing to improve productivity in their plants and distribution centers.

Your ProMat 2015 registration not only gives you access to the 325,000 square feet of exhibits, educational sessions and keynotes in McCormick Place South, it also grants you access to Automate 2015 located directly across the Grand Concourse hallway in McCormick Place North.